About

Founded in 2005 in San Diego, California by CEO Min-Liang Tan and Robert Krakoff, Razer began in a tiny shared office of gamers, with a mission to create high quality products designed solely to meet the demanding needs of gamers like themselves.

Today, with hundreds of employees in offices all around the world, Razer is known for its relentless pursuit of perfection, innovating to produce a unified platform of connected devices and software. The use of cutting edge technology, together with contributions by top Esports athletes, followed by constant fine-tuning, has resulted in an interactive, competitive, and immersive experience that is designed for gamers, by gamers.

Over the years, Razer has evolved into the gaming lifestyle brand that connects with all gamers, regardless of age, gaming genre, and console, by staying true to its core values, and continually delivering the best. Razer’s commitment to the gamer community can also be seen in its sponsorship of gaming events, Esports tournaments, and a diverse group of professional Esports athletes – Team Razer. All this, has earned Razer a formidable following of devoted fans, both on- and offline.

As the gaming industry continues to grow, Razer is positioned firmly on the forefront, armed with passion, determination, and gaming innovations that are truly made for gamers, by gamers.

History

Pre-History

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Razer wins “Best of CES” for the seventh year running for Project Ariana (“Best Gaming” as well as the “People’s Choice” awards).

Mobile start-up Nextbit is acquired by Razer.

Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2 launched.

Fourth and fifth Razer Stores open in San Francisco, USA and Shanghai, China.

Razer wins “Best of CES” for the sixth year running for the Blade Stealth laptop for the “Best PC” category, as well as the “People’s Choice” award.

Audiovisual icon THX is acquired by Razer.

Razer launches zVentures, earmarks up to $30 Million for startups and emerging tech.

Razer launches its first product for streamers and broadcasters – the Razer Seirēn digital microphone.

Razer teams up with NZXT™, producing the first product of this collaboration program, the NZXT H440 – Designed by Razer.

Team Razer snags over 280 podium placements and nets US$4 million in prize money, more than the winnings in 2013.

Team Razer sponsors KTRolster, the premier Korean professional gaming team which is home to one of the most accomplished Esports athletes of all time, Lee “Flash” Young Ho, also known as “God”.

The world’s most powerful tablet, the Razer Edge, takes home the highest awards at CES.

Together with Evil Geniuses, Team Razer founds Alliance – formerly Team No Tidehunter, who go on to win Valve’s Esports tournament, The International 3, and is awarded over US$1 million in prize money.

The world’s first professional Hearthstone player, Jeffrey “Trump” Shih, joins Team Razer.

Team Razer snags over 180 podium placements throughout the year and nets US$3.5 million in prize money.

Project Fiona, the gaming PC and tablet hybrid, makes its debut at CES.

Razer dominates at CES, winning four awards with Project Fiona and the Razer Blade.

Razer launches the Kraken line – its bestselling family of ergonomic PC gaming headsets.

Razer sponsors the first Team Liquid StarLeague, a highly-popular non-Korean StarCraft: Brood War tournament run by one of the world’s largest StarCraft communities.

The Razer Mako 2.1 debuts at CES, as the first desktop speaker system to incorporate THX Ground Plane™ and THX Slot Speaker™ technologies.

Razer expands to Europe and establishes regional European HQ in Hamburg, Germany.

Razer establishes the regional Asia-Pacific HQ in Singapore.

In collaboration with Microsoft, the Habu gaming mouse and the Reclusa gaming keyboard are designed by Razer and marketed under the Microsoft/Razer co-brand.

Razer sponsors Esports team, Fnatic – home to professionals such as Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager, who has won more than half of all Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) World Tour stops.

The Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse launches, becoming not only the bestselling gaming mouse in the world, but one of Razer’s most iconic products to date.

Min and Robert acquire the rights from kärna to the Razer brand and establish Razer Inc in San Diego, California.

Min takes on the role of CEO and Creative Director of Razer while Robert takes the role of President.

Min coins Razer’s tagline and mission, “For Gamers. By Gamers.™”

Razer launches the Razer Diamondback gaming mouse which becomes one of the top selling gaming products of all time, surpassing the Razer Boomslang.

Razer/kärna sponsors the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Event with an unprecedented prize pot of US$100,000.

Razer partners with one of the world’s first professional gamers, Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, the Quake, Doom, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, and Unreal Tournament player who scores $450,000 in prize winnings.

With the dot-com bust, kärna discontinues business operations and closes down.

With Min’s design input, kärna releases the Razer Boomslang, which paves the way as the world’s first gaming mouse.

kärna acquires mechanical high speed tracking technology and explores applying the technology to various industries.

GM of kärna, Robert Krakoff, meets Min-Liang Tan, a hardcore gamer, who suggests using this technology to make gaming mice. Min becomes the external consultant to kärna to provide the insights of a gamer.

Management Team

Min-Liang Tan

Founder, CEO

Min-Liang Tan is the co-founder, CEO and creative director of Razer. He directs and oversees the design and development of all Razer products.

Min-Liang is a trained technology lawyer and worked at one of the top intellectual property and technology law firms in Singapore before he founded Razer in 2005. He holds an LL. B from the National University of Singapore.

Min-Liang was born in Singapore and now resides in San Francisco.

Khaw Kheng Joo

COO

Khaw Kheng Joo joined Razer in 2009 and has served as our COO since 2012. Prior to Razer, Khaw held various positions at technology companies including CEO of MediaRing, Ltd., President of Omni Electronics and Senior Vice President at Celestica, Inc. Before that, Khaw spent 26 years at Hewlett-Packard, including serving as the General Manager of HP’s Handheld Product Division. Khaw led the effort to start manufacturing in China and to pioneer the smartphone category.

Khaw has served on the board of directors of Total Automation, Ltd., Amtek Engineering, Ltd., Senoko Power., Singapore Airport Terminal Service, Ltd. (SATS), Economic Development of Singapore (EDB) and Multi-Fineline Electronix, Inc. (MFLX).

Khaw holds an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University, California and a Bachelor of Science in Electronic and Computer Engineering from Oregon State University.

Edwin Chan

CFO

Edwin Chan has more than 13 years of experience in corporate finance and capital markets, with a focus on technology and emerging markets. Since joining Razer in 2009, Edwin has led corporate strategic initiatives including Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management ICT projects. In addition, Edwin spearheaded capital raising efforts that led to new investments from IDG-Accel and Temasek Holdings Heliconia Capital Management.

Prior to Razer, Edwin was at Artesian Capital Management overseeing the convertible bonds portfolio and managing equity and bond investments. Before that, he joined Chartered Semiconductor to lead their Corporate Finance efforts, re-capitalizing the company’s balance sheet and raising more than US$2Bn in capital. Edwin started his career as a capital markets banker at Salomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong.

Edwin graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a B.Sc. Accounting and Finance (First Class Honors).

Mike Dilmagani

SVP - Sales & Marketing

Mike has served as Razer's Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing since January 2010. He served as Razer's general manager and vice president of sales and marketing from October 2006 to January 2010 and as Razer's vice president of sales from October 2005 to October 2006.

Prior to joining Razer, Mike was the director of sales for EPO Technology of America, Inc., a manufacturer of optical drives, and was the national sales director for Newcom, Inc. until its initial public offering in 1998.

Mike holds a BS in economics from Tehran College and an MBA from the University of San Francisco.

Board of Advisors

Rahul Sood

General Manager & Partner, Microsoft Ventures

Rahul Sood is General Manager of Microsoft Ventures. His team operates startup accelerators and outreach around the world. They also run a strategic fund that makes seed investments in startup companies from their portfolio and others.

Rahul launched Microsoft Ventures in June 2013, after creating the Bing Fund in 2012. He joined Razer’s Board of Advisors in 2013.

A serial entrepreneur, Rahul spent 18 years at multiple startups prior to joining Microsoft in 2011. He founded luxury and gaming computer manufacturer VoodooPC, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006.

Sood is a co-founder of BrightSquid Medical, a unique collaboration platform for medical professionals, which was subsequently acquired by NetworksMD. He co-founded BrightSquid Dental, created BullsOnWallstreet, and is an active angel investor in a number of small Canadian-based energy companies.

He is active in the entrepreneurial community, helping and mentoring a variety of startups. Sood often speaks of creating balanced teams by bringing design + technology + business together to create beautiful products. You can find him on Twitter @rahulsood.

Ed Fries

Ed Fries joined Razer’s Board of Advisors in 2010.

He created his first video games for the Atari 800 in the early 1980s. Ed then spent 18 years at Microsoft, starting as an early developer of Excel and Word and then created Microsoft Game Studios. Over eight years, he grew the team from 50 people to over 1200, published more than 100 games, co-founded the Xbox project, and made Microsoft one of the leaders in the video game business.

In 2004, Ed retired as Microsoft Vice President to continue his work in the video game business as board member, advisor and consultant.

In 2007, Ed launched FigurePrints, a company that uses color 3D printing technology to bring video game characters to life. In 2010, Ed released “Halo 2600”, a “demake” of the Halo video game series for the Atari 2600 and is one of the first two video games to be added to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Investors

Founded in 2005, Razer is backed by Intel Capital, IDG-Accel and Heliconia Capital Management (Heliconia), a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore investment company Temasek.